My name is Stephen McCarthy
I build high performing design teams and deliver products that are understandable, useful and beautiful.
I’m currently Head of Product Design and User Research for Which?. Before that I was Head of Design for GOV.UK and the UK’s Government Digital Service.
Creating a more attractive, engaging and performant user experience
Building your trusted home for everyday advice
Increasing year on year engagement by focusing on user needs and fixing the basics
Creating a range of user-centred products for reuse across the public sector
Building the trusted GOV.UK design language from scratch
Building and maintaining a cross-government design community of 800+ people
Designing an accessible and reusable payments service for the public sector
GOV.UK Coronavirus response
Getting the right information to people at the right time during a time of national importance
Brexit checker
Giving individuals, families and businesses personalised information so they can make needed adjustments during a time of great uncertainty
Creating a brand for the International Design in Government community and their series of events
Creating and running a compelling series of events to build a wider GovDesign community of over 2,000 people
Building a brand for this innovative cultural institution
Designing a new publication for Public Digital
Newspaper pictograms
Defining a point in time using pictograms
GDS Academy
Building a brand for this popular government training org
GOV.UK comms
Building a simple GOV.UK corporate comms style
ConCon
Event branding for the annual cross-government content conference
England’s Burning
Using pictograms to tell the important story of the UK riots in 2011 – published by Unit Editions
Event branding and design for this premier public sector digital event
Using design to build a strong org culture
Open Government Licence (OGL)
Creating an iconic logo that can be recognised at small sizes